THE DAIRY CONFERENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 85, 10 April 1926, Page 8

THE DAIRY CONFERENCE

BOARD TAKES CHARGE

FILLING THE CHAIR IN

ADVANCE

(Contributed.)

The policy of the Dairy Produce Export Control Board, so far as it has been disclosed to the public, appears to be a subtle compound of extreme Socialism and narrow Toryism—a hotch-potch of ingredients as diverse as they are elusive. Its tendency towards extreme Socialism is indicated by the determination of the board to seize upon the property of protesting producers and .dispose of it just as it pleases without ponsulting the interests of any of the parties intimately affected by the transaction. In justification of this high-handed proceeding, the board has an Act of Parliament at. its back. "Whether or not this Act is good law is a question beyond the province of the mere layman. But if a body of this kind can be clothed with such sweeping authority as Mr. Grounds and his colleagues are about to exercise, what is to prevent a Labour Government, which the Dominion is bound to have sooner or later, bringing every industry in the country under similar conditions? It was the Labour members of the House of Representatives -ho enabled tin present "control" legislation to be placed on the Statute Book. They mado n secret of their desire to "socialise" the whole of the national industries, and were openly impatient of Mr. Massey's depreciation of unnecessary compulsion. To-day they are complaining bitterly that the Government has stolen this particular plank of their platform. Their opportunity will come, and with guch a precedent as they have in the existing legislation no one, withholding his protest now, will be able logically to say them nay. RIGGING THE FRANCHISE.

The Tory opportunism of the Dairy Board is even more flagrant than its extreme Socialism, and, if possible, a still more impudent invasion of the constitutional rights of the individual and the community. The basis of all popular representation in this country is manhood and womanhood suffrage. The fight for equality of sacrifice and equality of opportunity waß won years

.But the Dairy Board, with powers, it aeems, delegated to it by the Minister of Agriculture, has decreed that the voting at the meeting of delegates to be, held in "Wellington on 28th April, to recommend to the Government a method of electing members of the board, shall be by tons of dairy produce and not by individual suppliers or their representatives. "Dairy companies," the edict runs, "to havo one vote for every 100 tons of butter up to 500 tons and one additional vote for every addi,tional 150 tons of butter" or portion thereof. Two tons of cheese to be taken! as equal to one ton of butter." Here is a return to the methods of forty years ago—-when men and women counted for less than did possessions— in order that the Government may be advised by a minority of big producers instead of by a majority of , the producers as a whole. A large majority of the members of Parliament, a large majority of the factory suppliers, a large majority of the factory direc-, tori, and the Prime Minister himself have expressed themselves as favourable to the adoption of the ward system in electing the members of the board. This being fie case, there was little need to call a conference to ascertain the wishes of a majority of those associated with the dairy industry.

POSSESSIONS BEFORE MEN. But the chairman of the Dairy Board, who in the first instance had announced that the conference would decide for itself the method of voting, appears to have taken fright at the prospect of majority rule, and to have devised the pernicious method just quoted.. Assuming that all the dair;- factories in the Bominion are represented at the conference, there ■will be under this system 1262 votes to be exercised. Of these votes the North Island, with 34,643 suppliers, will have 957 votes, while the South Island, with 20,545 'suppliers, will have only 305 votes. In other words, in the North Island every 36 suppliers will have one vote, while in the South Island it will take 67 suppliers to secure a vote. Auckland province, with 16,638 suppliers, will exercise 433 votes, while Canterbury province, with 7533 suppliers, will exercise only 49 votes. If the voting strengths of these two provinces were determined by the number of suppliers Auckland would have 332 votes and Canterbury 150 votes. But it is unnecessary to go on emphasising the gross unfairness of the system of voting decreed by the Dairy Board. It stands condemned as an impudent devico on the part of certain members of the board to get their own way in spite of the opposition of a large majority of the producers. THE GOVERNMENT'S OBLIGATIONS. What is' the Government going to do about the matter? Thirty-six years ago the political party from which the present Beformers evolved gave New Zealand manhood suffrage and abolished plural voting. The present Prime Minister is responsible for the good name of the party he leads, and it is inconceivable that he will allow it to prostitute one of the greatest of its traditions at the bidding of half a dozen individuals who are seeking some sectional advantage. Mr. Coates himself has admitted frankly that he does not like the idea of applying compulsion to the greatest of the country's rural industries; he has stated definitely that he prefers the ward system of electing th i members of the Dairy Board to any other system; he has declared unreservedly that he will give Parliament an opportunity to reconsider the whole position at the earliest possible moment, and he- has implied broadly that the Dairy Board will not be allowed to exercise its compulsory powers until he is satisfied personally this step is absolutely necessary in the general interests of the i lustry. In these circumstances, people who are 4ooking to Mr. Coates for the solution of the great problems bequeathed to him by his former chief will ba both astonished and alarmed if he allows tho Dairy Board by distorting the purpose of the franchiso to obtain a delusive expression of opinion from, the conference to assemble in Wellington at the end of the present month. The fact that Mr. Grounds, the chairman of the board, and obviously a much biased person, has appointed himself chairman of the gathering, conveys its own significance.